Published: October 15, 2007 11:08 am            

Survey open to all parents, community members

By Dr. Jeff Mills



To assist the Woodward Public Schools in determining long-range goals for curriculum and instruction, we are asking all parents and community members to go online and complete the “KEYS to Excellence” survey. In the hope of receiving a widespread community response, I want to explain the process and clarify some of the concepts related to the survey.

One of our main purposes as a public school system is to ensure that our students are successful academically, and the KEYS survey assists us in that endeavor by gathering pertinent input from the school staff and the community. Here is what you will need to know in order to access the survey:

• The survey will be available as a link on our school district website (www.woodwardps.net) beginning Monday, Oct. 15th.

• You will need to set up a password and login prior to starting the survey. (Please remember your password.)

• You can log in to the survey and start and stop as many times as you need to for completion.

• The window for the survey will be open for two weeks, Oct. 15 through Oct. 29, 2007.

• The instructions or “KEYS support” icon is located on the survey site.

• If you have difficulty and cannot get your questions answered, please feel free to email me directly at jbmills@woowardps.net.

• After all survey responses are compiled, the results will be shared with the community via the newspaper.

Since 1996, over 600 communities nationwide have used the KEYS to Excellence survey as part of the collaborative effort needed for improving teaching and learning. The survey groups the indicators for school quality into the following six ‘keys’:

KEY No. 1: Shared Understanding and Commitment to High Goals

Designed to help all school stakeholders analyze the degree of their shared understanding and commitment to high levels of student achievement, the main purpose of this section is to help determine whether the school’s intellectual goals are clear and specific. To accomplish a shared understanding and commitment, everyone must be engaged in the visioning and goal setting processes.

In order to help you with your assessment, use the following five questions, which represent the stages of the school improvement process, as a backdrop:

1. Where are we now?

2. Where do we want to go?

3. How will we get there?

4. How will we know we are getting there?

5. How will we sustain the focus and momentum?

KEY No. 2: Open Communication and Collaboration

KEYS data indicates that staffs at high-performing schools share an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect along with a commitment to shared communication. This section addresses how to create opportunities for the exchange of ideas.

KEY No. 3: Continuous Assessment for Teaching and Learning

This section builds on the assessment discussion in KEY No. 2 by examining assessment practices in the school, the use of assessment data at all levels, and the consistency of instruction and assessment across the grades.

Throughout your work with this section, consider whether the WPS’s assessment system is consistent and comprehensive. Evaluate how well the assessments encompass what students are expected to learn. Compare classroom assessment techniques. In one classroom, for example, a teacher may exclusively use multiple choice questions while another uses only open-ended questions. Consider how our classroom assessments align with those at the state and district levels. How well do our local assessments expand upon what large-scale tests assess?

KEY No. 4: Personal and Professional Learning

This section is designed to offer a deeper understanding of how personal and professional development is linked to continuous school improvement. It encourages school staff to embrace a “radical rethinking" of professional development and to accept that people learn best through active participation.

KEY No. 5: Resources to Promote Teaching and Learning

The purpose of this section is to help staff, administrators, and members of the community analyze not only how educational resources are selected and used but also the impact that these resources have on student achievement. This process will help a school community make smarter decisions, particularly when utilizing limited funds.

KEY No. 6: Curriculum and Instruction

This section reinforces the importance of formulating a school’s vision and goals from shared understandings about the impact of curriculum and instruction on student achievement. Maintaining an effective, comprehensive curriculum and instruction action plan (CCIAP) is a constantly evolving process sustained only through open communication and problem solving. Continuous assessment of teaching and learning is inherent to improvement.

Defining a Comprehensive Curriculum and Instruction Action Plan

A comprehensive curriculum means that a school’s education program accounts for all learning across grades and over time. To ensure that our school’s curriculum and instructional action plans are comprehensive, we must build upon the ideas, concepts, and processes previously taught. Building meaningful content occurs within a lesson and from lesson to lesson, class to class, grade to grade, and subject to subject, all the while avoiding excessive repetition. When teachers use effective instructional strategies and encourage students to construct their own ideas, combining what they know with what they are learning, students gain knowledge and skills that grow richer and more complex over time.

As we work to close achievement gaps for all students, your input is very important, and we encourage all Woodward school patrons to join with us as we continue to move our district forward.



Sincerely,

Jeff B. Mills, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Woodward Public Schools

        

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